Price increase? Price increase.
The latest wave of GPU price hike had just happened. This time, it’s not just about higher end cards bought by many for cryptocurrency mining. Believe it or not, the GTX 1050 Ti down to the GT 1030 are now affected. It is not funny, considering that there are gamers cornered on buying lower end cards due to the current shortage and price hike. Let’s take a look at the current street prices of these cards.
| Model | Before | Current | Increase |
| Nvidia GeForce GT 1030 | 3500 PHP | 4400 PHP | 26% |
| Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 | 5500 PHP | 7700 PHP | 40% |
| Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti | 6600 PHP | 8800 PHP | 33% |
At the moment, the GT 1030 retails for about 4400 PHP. That’s about 26% higher than the norm since last year. The GTX 1050 on the other hand poised the highest increase over the two cards with a 40% increase over the RRP. Finally, the GTX 1050 Ti gets a 33% increase which is now in line with the GTX 1060 3GB model back then. Ridiculous figures for budget oriented components.
According to my reputable source, the reason behind the latest increase is GDDR5 yet again. It has been the case back in August with major players in the industry (SK Hynix, Samsung) shifting to server and mobile VRAM production. The shift into manufacturing those increased GDDR5 chip prices by up to 30% last year. Ultimately driving the cost of manufacturing up graphics cards.
This year however we are looking at the aftermath with a limited supply of memory chips on top of higher demand for GPUs. Distributors and dealers had to increase their prices as well to maintain profitable operation.
Nvidia is encouraging retailers to prioritize graphics cards to gamers and it is good to see retailers taking actions. It is not enough though as this still puts their business at risk. They had to pay for expenses too and admittedly they have to increase the margin to compensate.
Are you willing to upgrade your system anytime soon or are you more willing to buy a console instead?
